Mayesville Town Council members completed a first interview for the vacant town attorney position in the privacy of executive session and without the support or presence of recently elected Mayor Chris Brown.
"Mayor Brown has been notified, at this time it is unclear if he will participate," Town Clerk Taurice Collins wrote in an email to the media the day before the meeting.
Brown, who said the meeting is not in the best interests of the public and asked Collins to remove him from the agenda, created an email chain with members of the public.
"I have not endorsed this meeting or approved it. My name is listed on it without approval," he wrote. "I would not be able to be there anyway - I will be picking up [my] daughter at the airport in Charleston."
Four people were present for Thursday's special called meeting, and 14 people attended virtually via Zoom. Those who attended in person included two members of the public, Councilwoman Cynthia Massingill and Collins. Councilman Jasaad Ricks and Councilwoman Roteshia Benjamin attended virtually. Brown was not there either virtually or in person.
There were also no deputies from Sumter County Sheriff's Office present because of a lapse in communication from council.
Chief Deputy Hampton G. Gardner told The Sumter Item that deputies attend every Mayesville public meeting.
When Brown held an unofficial meeting in the learning center hallway last month, there were multiple deputies present after an altercation had broken out before the meeting between the town clerk's husband and former Councilman Kell Compton, according to previous reporting from The Sumter Item and Post and Courier. It has not been uncommon for tensions to rise at Mayesville meetings since Brown has taken office. He and all but one council member - who is currently suspended for supposedly threatening the former mayor - have differing opinions on how the local government should be run, which came to head early on when every council member walked out of his first meeting as mayor.
"They have town hall meetings of which we will have a deputy there, but they attend all community meetings because we've been doing it forever," Gardner said.
According to the sheriff's office's public information officer, Mark Bordeaux, Sheriff Anthony Dennis only learned about the Feb. 8 meeting the day of because of a text message from the mayor.
"It was noted that it was to be a Zoom meeting," Bordeaux told The Item. "Therefore, there was no need for deputies to be present."
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Brown told The Sumter Item he wants the public involved in the choosing of the town's next attorney and in the interview questions that would be asked of the candidates, so he created a committee. On this committee are eight people, including Brown, and seven members of the public. Brown said he asked everyone on town council to join the committee. They all declined.
Brown also said that if council members had opted to join the committee upon his invitation that he would hold the committee meetings and interviews in a public meeting format with a formal agenda.
He said additional members of the public are still welcome to come to the committee meeting on Friday, Feb. 9, at 4 p.m. at Mayesville Fire Station but that he plans to brief the public on that committee meeting during the regularly scheduled council meeting on Feb. 13. He said he also hopes that he and council will decide who is the next town attorney during that Feb. 13 meeting.
Collins, the town clerk, told The Sumter Item that council was "not comfortable" interviewing candidates the way that Brown plans to interview them.
The town attorney position is not a full-time position. The attorney would be on retainer with the town.
So, during the special called meeting, without Brown present and with two of the town's three council members attending via Zoom (and one other council member absent and suspended by the governor for allegedly threatening the former mayor), council completed three things: They approved the agenda after issuing a correction that added the word "interim" in front of "mayor pro tem"; voted Massingill to be interim mayor pro tem; and held an executive session where they interviewed Eleazer Carter of The Carter Law Firm in Manning for the vacant town attorney position. No action was taken after the executive session on matters discussed behind closed doors.
It took 24 minutes from the start of the meeting at 1 p.m. to enter into executive session just before 1:25 p.m. Some of this was related to common Zoom issues and starting the meeting with a short invocation, while the other approximately 20 minutes were spent approving the agenda with the correction, electing Massingill as interim mayor pro tem and calling for an executive session.
With no mayor present to call for motions or votes, council struggled to follow standard public meeting protocol. There was also some confusion as to when council is to address the public or each other.
Brown said that during his committee meeting on Feb. 9, the committee will interview at least two candidates for the vacant town attorney position: Hal Cobb of Cobb Dill and Hammett LLC and John Dubose of Smith, Robinson, Holler, Dubose & Morgan LLC.
Brown said Carter was invited to interview with the committee and was told he is welcome to be interviewed by council in their executive session in addition to being interviewed by the committee, which includes Brown and members of the public.
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These meetings come after reporting from The Post and Courier and The Sumter Item earlier this year, as part of the Charleston paper's statewide Uncovered project, detailing how a community development corporation was created by the former mayor and her husband as a nonprofit to help raise money for affordable housing and economic development, but the dynamic this created has proven problematic for Brown having access to everything he needs for mayoral duties. Ed Miller, as leader of the nonprofit, controls the keys and deed to the building the town has been using for council meetings and town offices.
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